


Look At The Stars | LatS

by SujuLoveNL



Category: Super Junior
Genre: Angst, BestFriends!KyuHae, BestFriends!YeHyuk, Character Death, Drama, M/M, Major Illness, Romance, YeKyu - Freeform, kyusung - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-05-28 10:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15047075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SujuLoveNL/pseuds/SujuLoveNL
Summary: Kyuhyun and Donghae bought a house together in a small town. Once settled, new neighbors arrive. Their names are Hyukjae and Jongwoon. The 4 boys seem to match pretty well, and it doesn’t take long for the 4 of them to become good friends. The only downside is that Hyukjae and Jongwoon have a little secret.





	1. Character Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This was probably my first seriously written fanfic, and I was still developing my writing skills. I apologize for the bad English and writing style, but it will improve along the way xP This fanfic is dedicated to my friend, who died 9 years ago (At the time I wrote this it had only been 2 years). Parts of this story explain what he went through, and how I interpreted things about illness, treatment and emotionally. The rest is purely fictional. I hope you understand ^^

**Cho Kyuhyun:**  
Cho Kyuhyun had always been eager to move out of his parental house and to explore the world together with his best friend Donghae. When the two of them got the opportunity to move out and buy their own house together, Kyuhyun was the first one to embrace this chance. As Kyuhyun always had an easy life, he didn’t expect anything odd to cross his path, unfortunately, the world isn’t as fair as he always thought that it was. Kyuhyun still attends school and works part-time at the local café.

**Lee Donghae:**  
Donghae is from a rich family, his parents made it possible for both him and Kyuhyun to lend some money to buy themselves a house. Even though Donghae didn’t want to rely on his parents at first, Kyuhyun’s persistence made him accept his parents offer. Donghae finished school a month before moving into the new house, and is now working as a teacher at a dance school.

**Kim Jongwoon (Yesung):**  
Jongwoon is a rather mysterious person. He is very outgoing, friendly, and he makes friends easily, yet he doesn’t tell much about himself. Except, of course, to the people who he is close with. His best friend is Lee Hyukjae, who is like a little brother to him. Together, they bought a house in a small village, which happens to be the house next to Kyuhyun and Donghae’s. Jongwoon has finished his education and is now licensed to be a veterinarian.

**Lee Hyukjae (Eunhyuk):**  
Hyukjae is less mysterious than Jongwoon is, but he is still a little different than other people. He is a very happy person, but some days he will be sad all of the sudden with no explainable reason. He is very protective over Jongwoon, for multiple reasons. Hyukjae’s dance skills are extraordinary, but he is too shy to show it to the world. Therefore, instead of following his dream to become a world-famous dancer, he settled for a boring office job.


	2. Prologue

A pantechnicon van stopped in front of a reasonably sized house. Two men, named Cho Kyuhyun and Lee Donghae, stepped out of the van and looked towards the house in front of them.

None of them spoke.

They inhaled the air deeply, it somehow felt cleaner than the air they were used to; they listened to the sounds silently, surprised that they could actually hear some birds sing. Then they looked at each other and smiled.

Suddenly, an ambulance stopped in front of the house next to theirs. A man stepped out, walked to the front door, and rang the doorbell. A girl, her eyes filled with tears, opened. She led the man inside. Not much later, the man came back outside, opened the back of the ambulance, got out a stretcher, and disappeared back into the house. Five minutes later he appeared again, pushing the stretcher ahead of him. A person was now visually lying on the stretcher and a blanket covered him/her up completely.

“That doesn’t look good..,” Donghae said, breaking the silence.

“She invited us over for a drink tomorrow..,” Kyuhyun mumbled in response.

They had met the old lady, who was most likely the person lying beneath the blanket, when they came over to see the house last week. She was very friendly to them, and she had invited them over for a drink as soon as they moved into the house. To celebrate. The house they were moving into had been empty for 3 years straight. So finally having neighbors again made her very happy.

Since they felt that it was inappropriate to stare, they decided to start shipping their stuff from the van into their new house. After 3 long hours, long after the ambulance had left, Kyuhyun put the last box on the floor of the living room. Satisfied, they looked at the huge pile of boxes. Even though they still couldn’t forget about what happened earlier that day, they decided to stay positive.

“Let our new lives begin!”


	3. Chapter 1

“There!”

Donghae took one step back and stared cheerfully at the painting he had just hung up. Kyuhyun, on the other hand, stared at the flower-painting with slight disgust in his eyes.

They were living in their new house for two weeks now, and the decorating was finally done. Donghae insisted on the flower-painting, because Kyuhyun had put up a World Of Warcraft poster in the living room. Both of them wanted a saying in how the house would end up looking, and this resulted in both of their styles combined all through the house.

“We should never invite people over,” Kyuhyun stated matter-of-factly, as he looked through the living room which looked... Well, let’s just say it looked different than any other normal living room.

Donghae made an agreeing sound in reply, but Kyuhyun could tell he didn’t even know what he was agreeing on. As he turned away from the painting towards Donghae, he found Donghae staring distracted out of the window.

“The new neighbors arrived,” Donghae mumbled, still staring outside. Just one day after the old lady had died, her house was put for sale. And just one week later, so a week ago, the sign in the yard changed from ‘ _for sale_ ’ to ‘ _sold_ ’.

“I hope they are below the average age of this square,” Kyuhyun smartly responded, walking towards Donghae, only to see a large pantechnicon van stopping in front of the house next to theirs.

Kyuhyun and Donghae’s house was on a small square. There were eight freestanding houses, and, them excluded, all the residents were at least 80+. It's not that they dislike elderly people, quite the opposite actually, but it would be nice to have some people of their own age living close by.

As soon as Donghae saw black hair jumping out of the van, instead of gray, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Should we go say hi?” Donghae eagerly pronounced.

“Let them unpack the van first, they aren’t going anywhere.”

Kyuhyun was less eager to meet the new neighbors than Donghae was. Donghae needed many people around him, Kyuhyun on the other hand was fine with just a few good friends. Sure, it was nice to have some younger people living in the same street, so that he could talk to them about other things than how horrible the youth was nowadays every once in a while, but it was not like he had planned to befriend them ever since last week, like Donghae had.

Ever since the ‘ _sold_ ’-sign was put up at their neighbor's house, it was all Donghae could talk about. ' _I hope they are around our age!_ ', ' _Would they be nice?!_ ', ' _Ahh, when are they coming?_ ', ' _Do we have enough food in the house so we can invite them over?_ '. All these questions had almost made Kyuhyun regret his decision to buy a house together with his best friend. Almost, because, no matter how hard he tried, he could not hate Donghae. If it wasn’t for Donghae, all Kyuhyun would do was working and playing games on his computer when he was having some free time. Donghae kept him sane.

After 1 hour, Donghae couldn’t resist anymore. He walked outside and dragged Kyuhyun with him, even though Kyuhyun protested with all his might. They walked over to their side of the small fence, which separated their garden from the neighbor's, and just a few seconds later, one of the two new neighbors noticed them and started walking towards them.

“Don’t ruin this,” Donghae whispered from the corner of his mouth to Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun glared back at him as response, but Donghae'd already focused his attention on the boy who came walking their way.

“Welcome to our neighborhood,” Donghae said, sticking his hand forward to shake with the other. “My name is Lee Donghae, and this is Cho Kyuhyun.” Kyuhyun also shook hands with the boy who was looking rather amused at the two of them.

“Thank you! My name is Lee Hyukjae and..,” he paused for a moment and looked back towards his house, where the other man had just disappeared into. “Hmm, well, the man with me is named Kim Jongwoon,” he returned his gaze back to Donghae and Kyuhyun and smiled.

“Do you want to eat something at our place?” Donghae blurted out, turning red right after he'd popped the question. “You both must be tired from all the unpacking..,” he added, hoping that that explained the slightly weird question. He did not want to sound like some scary neighbor, which, according to Kyuhyun, he already seemed to be.

Hyukjae didn't seem to notice the strangeness of the question at all though, and accepted the offer wholeheartedly. He agreed to join both Donghae and Kyuhyun with Jongwoon after they had finished unpacking their stuff from the van.

Donghae told Hyukjae that he was looking forward to it and said his goodbye, poking Kyuhyun in the process so that the latter would say his goodbye too.

Exactly one hour later, the sound of a doorbell ringing echoed through Donghae and Kyuhyun's house. Donghae, who had been cooking more food than Kyuhyun could possibly eat in one month, started stressing out and sent Kyuhyun to the front door instead. This one sighed, walked to the front door, looked in the mirror which was hanging next to the front door, fixed his hair really fast, and eventually opened the door. Two men were staring at him, smiling with half mooned eyes. All that Kyuhyun had left to do was fixing himself a smile on his face and inviting them in.

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	4. Chapter 2

“So... Did you like them?” Donghae asked, staring at his best friend questioningly. Hyukjae and Jongwoon had just left; they had stayed over until 11:30 PM.

“Hmm,” Kyuhyun hummed. “But can I go to bed now? I have to work at 6 AM.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, Goodnight Kyuhyun-ah,” Donghae mumbled softly, and he turned around, slightly disappointed with his friend's reaction. If Kyuhyun didn’t like them, then there was _no way_ Donghae could invite them over again. Kyuhyun was very good at scaring people away, especially if he didn't like them or had no connection with them whatsoever.

Kyuhyun smiled at Donghae’s back; he knew exactly what was going through his best friends mind at this moment. He ran towards Donghae and engulfed him in a back hug. “They were oke, don’t worry,” he said, and he kissed Donghae on his cheek to comfort him.

“Juck!” Donghae exclaimed, rubbing his hand across his cheek, but he did seem slightly happier.

“Goodnight, Donghae,” Kyuhyun said, unwrapping himself from Donghae and running upstairs.

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
The next morning, Kyuhyun was amazed that he'd made it to work on time. Kyuhyun loved sleeping, and he could sleep through all kinds of sounds if he hadn’t made his regular sleeping hours; even through 3 different alarm clocks simultaneously going off.

Kyuhyun works at the local café. They open at 6 in the morning, and close at 2 in the middle of the night. It is the only hangout place in their village; a place where locals could come to either just sit and relax, to drink some coffee before going to work, or to hang out at with friends during the day/evening. For the real nightlife they have to go to the big city, which is 20 minutes away by car or public transport.

Kyuhyun works as many hours as he possibly can, because he and Donghae need to pay off the house to Donghae’s parents, who had paid for them in advance. Donghae's parents had told them that they could take all the time that they needed, but Kyuhyun didn’t like to be in dept with others. Therefore he wanted to pay off the ‘loan’ as quick as possible.

Aside from his work, Kyuhyun still goes to school. He studies ' _business management and economics'_. It has always been his dream to have his own company when he is older. And with this education he would learn all the basics that he needs to get his company up and running. Due to his decision to move into the wide world and buying himself a house together with Donghae, he now works part-time and goes to school part-time. It is tough, but do-able.

At 9 AM, Kyuhyun noticed someone familiar walking into the café. The man looked around before taking a seat at one of the tables near the window. Kyuhyun sighed and walked over to him.

“You are supposed to order before sitting down.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that, I'm sorry,” the man said, looking up and recognizing Kyuhyun. His confused face turned into a bright smiling one as he said, “Good morning, Cho Kyuhyun.”

Kyuhyun felt weird when the man addressed him with his full name; he was obviously being over-polite. But they didn’t know each other that well yet, so Kyuhyun didn’t mention anything about it. He walked back towards the counter and the man followed him. When Kyuhyun returned to his place behind the counter, he turned to the man who was standing on the other side.

“What can I get for you, _mister_ Kim Jongwoon?” Kyuhyun said, smirking inside. Jongwoon could be overly polite, but Kyuhyun could do much better.

Sadly enough, the other didn’t seem to bother and just ordered some coffee before walking back to his seat. He grabbed a large book out of his bag and started to read, taking a sip of his newly brewed coffee every now and then.

Kyuhyun continued doing his work chores, and when he finally had some free time to talk to Jongwoon, the latter had already left. Kyuhyun slumped down on Jongwoon's earlier seat at the now empty table, and felt slightly insulted that the man didn’t even say goodbye to him before leaving. It wasn't that much to ask for, was it?

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
When Kyuhyun returned home from work at 5 PM, he heard loud noises coming from within the kitchen; it would be no surprise that that is where he went to.

When he opened the kitchen door, different fragrances entered Kyuhyun’s nose. He had no idea what Donghae was cooking, but it smelled incredible.

He found two men sitting at the dining table, while Donghae was practically dancing throughout the whole kitchen, keeping an eye on five different pots, stirring a salad, setting the table and pouring some drinks.

“Kyuhyun! Sit down, sit down, dinner is almost ready! What do you want to drink?” Donghae asked as soon as he noticed Kyuhyun standing in the doorway.

“Some water is fine.”

“Just water? Anyway, I invited Hyukjae and Jongwoon over for dinner again, their kitchen is not done yet.”

Kyuhyun gave Donghae his you-know-I-need-some-rest-after-work glare before sitting down at the dining table. He nodded to Hyukjae and Jongwoon as his greeting, as he was too tired to use actual words.

After dessert, Kyuhyun had finally refilled some of his energy and he decided to join the conversation the other three were having. Donghae had made many attempts to find out more about their current guests and Kyuhyun could tell that he needed help. After all, Donghae was too innocent to really nag about something, Kyuhyun on the other hand was a pro at this; it was time for him to start a little interrogation.

“So...” Kyuhyun started, tapping his finger on the table. All eyes instantly turned towards him, mostly because Kyuhyun hadn’t said a word for at least one hour and they were surprised that he suddenly made some noise. Donghae looked worried, Hyukjae looked happy and Jongwoon looked intrigued.

“Where did you live before moving here?”

“We are both from Seoul, how about–”

“What made you decide to come to a small village?” Kyuhyun interrupted. He was asking the questions, not Hyukjae.

“Ew... We wanted to get away from all the crowds, all the stress and all the noises,”  Hyukjae replied, slightly startled by Kyuhyun's interruption. Kyuhyun nodded in understanding, that had been the same reason for him and Donghae to move away from Seoul to a small peaceful village.

“What kind of hobbies do you have?” Kyuhyun continued. He didn’t really have a structure in his interrogation, he just randomly popped out questions that came into his mind.

“Well...” Hyukjae blushed, “I really like dancing, but I’m not that good.”

“Seriously?!” Donghae eagerly interrupted Kyuhyun’s interrogation, “I work as a teacher at a dance school!”

Kyuhyun could basically see Donghae bounce on his seat. If there was one thing that Donghae loved, it was dancing. And he was pretty good at it too. Kyuhyun listened to Donghae and Hyukjae talking about dancing, when they suddenly challenged each other for a dance battle in the living room. Jongwoon and Kyuhyun had to be the judge and decide who of the two was the better dancer. Kyuhyun exchanged one glance with Jongwoon before standing up and relocating to the living room.

Donghae was the first one to dance. Kyuhyun, Jongwoon, and Hyukjae watched with fascination while Donghae was dancing, and when he finished they all clapped loudly.

“Wow, you are amazing!” Hyukjae said to him, patting Donghae's shoulder as if they had been friends for years.

“Thank you!” Donghae smiled, “Now show us your skills!”

Hyukjae walked to the middle of the room and stood there for a few seconds, shyly, waiting for Jongwoon to finally turn on the music. And as soon as that happened, Hyukjae danced as if he had never done anything else in his life. Donghae was unable to close his mouth during the whole performance, and when Hyukjae finished, he clapped while shaking his head out of disbelief.

“That was perfect!”

Jongwoon and Kyuhyun went into consultation to decide who was the winner of tonight’s dance battle. They really couldn’t decide, so both Donghae and Hyukjae won. Both of them looked pleased with the results and didn’t care about who was better anymore. Donghae, who was still into the dancing, grabbed Kyuhyun’s hand and started tugging, trying to make Kyuhyun stand up.

“Now it’s your turn!”

Kyuhyun gulped, but he didn’t want to let Donghae down so he stood up and walked to the middle of the living room. As soon as the music started, he danced as good as he could. But after 1 minute, Donghae turned off the music, too embarrassed by Kyuhyun’s dance skills.

“Turn it back on, I was just getting the hang of it!” Kyuhyun proclaimed, pointing at Donghae with a serious face. All of the others started laughing and Kyuhyun couldn’t hold it in anymore either. He knew he couldn’t dance. It must have looked horrible.

“Now it’s your turn!” Kyuhyun said, walking over to Jongwoon and grabbing his hand. This one looked shocked and shook his head.

“I can’t. I have a back problem.”

Kyuhyun looked over to Hyukjae, as if he wanted confirmation, and Hyukjae nodded in agreement.

“He really has, but be happy, his dancing is worse than yours.”

“Ouch,” Kyuhyun acted as if he was hurt and all the others laughed. Soon the subject of the conversation changed and the evening turned out perfect.

When Kyuhyun was lying in bed later that evening, he wondered why he was always pigheaded when it came to making new friends. Jongwoon and Hyukjae might be a little mysterious, but Kyuhyun could really connect with them. He liked them. And Kyuhyun liking people was rare.

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	5. Chapter 3

Hyukjae and Jongwoon’s kitchen was done exactly one week later. The whole week they had been eating dinner at Donghae and Kyuhyun’s, because Donghae had kindly insisted on it. So to get even with them, Hyukjae and Jongwoon invited them over to eat at their place for a week as well.

Their house was different than Donghae and Kyuhyun’s. It seemed that Hyukjae and Jongwoon did have the same taste, because the whole house was one giant oasis of peace; everything matched perfectly together.

Their cooking skills were less good than Donghae’s though, but that was alright. Donghae loved to have 7 evenings off, and Kyuhyun never cooked anyway and he would eat anything as long as it didn’t contain broccoli; he despised broccoli.

After that week it became a habit for them to eat at each other’s places. One day they would eat at the KyuHae household ( _they named it KyuHae because they thought it sounded cute_ ) and the other day they would eat at the HyukWoon/JongJae household ( _they couldn’t decide on the name_ ). Whatever suited best.

A month passed and the 4 of them became friends. Next to eating at each other’s places, they also started to go out together, watching movies together, going grocery shopping together etc. Life couldn’t get any better. Or could it?

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
“I’m in love!” Donghae yelled, running into Kyuhyun’s room, where Kyuhyun was trying to play a game, and fell down on his friend's bed.

“Did I miss something?” Kyuhyun asked, pausing his game and turning towards Donghae, who was in the middle of hugging all of Kyuhyun’s plushies.

“Not really, only the most beautiful smile IN THE WORLD!”

Kyuhyun could guess whose smile Donghae was talking about. Hyukjae was giving Donghae popping-lessons, and Donghae had just returned home from one of those lessons.

“If you like him so much, why don’t you ask him out?”

Donghae sat up on the bed and looked at Kyuhyun. “Should I?” He asked pensively, more to himself than to the man sitting across from him. “I should!” He replied his own question with determination and he stood up, gave Kyuhyun a small hug and ran off to the neighbor's house.

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
Kyuhyun looked around. This was the first evening since they'd moved here, that he was alone in the house. It was less fun then he thought it would be, so he just grabbed a DVD from the cabinet and turned it on. After watching the first 5 minutes, the doorbell rang.

Kyuhyun sighed, paused his DVD, stood up, walked towards the door and opened it. He stared at Jongwoon, who had been standing on the other side of the door, and Jongwoon greeted him.

“Hi! Ehm..,” Jongwoon hesitated for a bit. ”This might be a weird question, but can I hang out at your place for a while? Donghae and Hyukjae are having their date inside our house and they kicked me out.”

Kyuhyun laughed and opened the door a bit further so Jongwoon could walk in. “Sure, I was just watching a DVD, you can join in if you want.”

“Oh, what film?”

“World of Warcraft the Movie.”

Jongwoon paused for a second before continuing his walk to the living room. He decided it was better to watch an unknown movie ( _he had never heard of World of Warcraft before_ ) than to walk outside, alone and in the dark, for hours.

They settled down in the living room before Kyuhyun unpaused the DVD and told Jongwoon he hadn't missed anything important just yet. Jongwoon just smiled at Kyuhyun, and soon both boys focused their eyes on the TV screen.

Kyuhyun laughed every once in a while because of the movie. Apparently it was supposed to be something funny, but Jongwoon didn’t get it at all. Every time something ‘funny’ happened in the movie, Kyuhyun laughed and then turned to look at Jongwoon, to see if he was laughing as well. If he wasn’t, Kyuhyun would look slightly disappointed and it didn't go unnoticed. Jongwoon felt sorry for Kyuhyun, so soon he laughed when Kyuhyun laughed; acting as if he understood the movie and its humor.

“Did you like it?” Kyuhyun asked as soon as the movie had ended, and he stood up.

“Yeah, it was funny!” Jongwoon lied, hoping that Kyuhyun would fall for it.

“Then I have a surprise for you.”

Jongwoon had a bad feeling about that. Kyuhyun walked to the cabinet, grabbed another DVD and put it in the DVD-player before showing the DVD cover to Jongwoon.

“World of Warcraft the Movie II !!” Jongwoon smiled weakly, and Kyuhyun sat down with an even happier face than before.

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
“Ssst,” Donghae entered the living room quite noisily and Kyuhyun frantically pointed to the person sitting next to him.

“Sorry,” Donghae whispered. He sat down on another couch and faced the other two; Jongwoon was sleeping peacefully with his head resting on Kyuhyun’s shoulder. “Did you bore him?”

“No!” Kyuhyun responded, much louder than planned, so he anxiously looked to the side. Luckily, Jongwoon didn’t wake up. “No, we just watched a movie together,” Kyuhyun continued, whispering this time. He pointed at the TV, where the movie was still playing, and Donghae recognized it immediately. He put on his pity-face and Kyuhyun gave him an angry-look back.

“So how was your date?” Kyuhyun asked, deciding to just switch the subject to something other than his awesome movie.

“The best date I ever had. And guess what Hyukjae gave me at the end,” Donghae replied happily.

“A new car?”

“A kiss, you moron.”

Kyuhyun chuckled at his own comment. Donghae stood up and was about to punish Kyuhyun when Jongwoon suddenly woke up.

“What time is it...?” He asked drowsily, looking sheepishly at his watch, but his eyes weren’t working properly enough yet to be able to distinguish the actual time.

“Half past twelve,” Donghae replied.

“I should go, Hyukjae will be worried,” Jongwoon said on his turn, and he stood up and walked -as straight as he could- towards the front door. Donghae gestured at the connecting door Jongwoon had just walked through and Kyuhyun hastily followed after him.

“I hope my movies didn’t bore you,” Kyuhyun said, still wondering if that was the reason why Jongwoon had fallen asleep.

“Oh, not at all, they were really fun!”

“They? You only saw 15 minutes of part 2!”

“Did I?” Jongwoon chuckled and opened the front door. Before leaving he pinched Kyuhyun’s arm, “Thanks for tonight, I wouldn’t have survived on my own outside”, he smiled brightly and then left.

Kyuhyun reached for his stomach. Did he just feel a tingle inside? He shrugged it off and walked back inside. It was time for him to hear all the details about Donghae’s date.

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	6. Chapter 4

  
Chapter 4  
“Ah, okay, talk to you tomorrow then,” Donghae sighed, he ended the phone call and pouted at his phone.

“Who was it?” Kyuhyun asked, not averting his gaze from his book. He had a marketing test at school the next day, so he had to study really hard.

“Hyukjae.. They aren’t coming over for dinner tonight.”

“Why?” Kyuhyun did look up from his book this time; a confused glint in his eyes. If they really weren’t coming over, it would be the first time in 2 months that they wouldn’t be eating together. Donghae shrugged in response, and mumbled something about Hyukjae and Jongwoon eating in town, before walking out of Kyuhyun’s room.

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
The next morning, Kyuhyun had to work before taking his test. Luckily, his boss told him he could study whenever it wasn’t too busy in the café; his marketing test was scheduled at 4 in the afternoon.

Because the morning was quite uneventful, Kyuhyun had a lot of extra time to study. But around 12 it started to get busier, and at 3, when the silence finally returned, Kyuhyun already had to leave for school.

“Good luck on your test, Kyuhyun!” His boss yelled, right before Kyuhyun walked out. Kyuhyun smiled, his boss was so caring; always wanting what was best for his workers.

The marketing test went well. Kyuhyun didn’t expect anything else though, he was a top student at his school, and reading something once made him remember it forever. He did read most of the study material yesterday and the remaining curriculum at work earlier today, so he wasn’t scared beforehand that he would blow his test. Turned out he was right. Again a stroke of luck for Kyuhyun, maybe this was his lucky day.

Also, tonight Hyukjae and Jongwoon would be back again from town, so they would most likely come over for dinner again. Kyuhyun had really missed those two boys the day before, even though he would never admit this to anyone, especially to Jongwoon.

Donghae and Hyukjae had been dating for 2 weeks now, and whenever the 4 of them ate together, Donghae and Hyukjae only had attention for each other. So Kyuhyun was left to talk with Jongwoon. This boy turned out to be very interesting, Kyuhyun learned a lot about him and even though he didn’t tell Donghae this yet, he thinks he might have developed some feelings for Jongwoon. Since today was Kyuhyun’s lucky day, he decided to ask Jongwoon out tonight. Nothing bad could come from that, could it?

  
✭✭✭✭✭

  
“Why are you so dressed up?”

Donghae stared at his friend suspiciously. Kyuhyun had never put much attention into how he looked when visitors came over, so this was a rare event. His hair was just... perfect, he was wearing his neatest clothes, and he even had a large smile plastered on his face.

At that point, the doorbell rang and Kyuhyun rushed to the front, successfully avoiding Donghae’s question. He did wonder how the other 2 would react if they saw him dressed up like this, or, well he wondered how Jongwoon would react. However, Donghae and Hyukjae reacted was none of his concern.

“Hi Kyuhyun,” Hyukjae said, and he was already hugging Kyuhyun as soon as he had opened the door. Kyuhyun was surprised because of this, secretly wondering if his new look had anything to do with this, and didn’t know how to react; he decided to just awkwardly pat his back. The first thing he noticed, though, was that Jongwoon wasn’t around. Once Hyukjae backed off, Kyuhyun also noticed the other wasn’t as happy as he usually was. He looked as if he had a whole world to carry on his shoulders, while normally he would smile brightly.

  
“Is something wrong?”

“Hyukjae-ah!” Donghae interrupted -before Hyukjae could respond to Kyuhyun’s question- by jumping into his boyfriend's arms. “I missed you! ... Where is Jongwoon?”

“He decided to stay in town a few more days, I’m sorry I didn’t inform you guys earlier, he told me just before I left today to go home.”

Hyukjae did cheer up as the evening advanced though. Kyuhyun figured that the reason Hyukjae was a little off at the beginning must have been because he had missed Donghae tremendously the day before. After all, the two of them had been inseparable ever since they had started dating.

When Hyukjae had finally left, much later that evening, Donghae walked over to Kyuhyun.

“Are you oke?” He asked, and he placed his hand on Kyuhyun’s shoulder as a sign of support. He had noticed that Kyuhyun wasn’t his usual happy self that evening. He also knew that Kyuhyun had planned to ask Jongwoon out and that he was all dressed up because of that. Donghae might look oblivious, but he knew his friend better than Kyuhyun knew himself.

“Fine,” Kyuhyun answered, faking a smile. He did not want his friend to know about his failed plan; Kyuhyun was a man of pride, failing was not part of his dictionary.

“You’ll have a chance when he is back again,” Donghae said, smiling before walking away. He knew Kyuhyun was probably boiling inside after he had said that, because of his pride and stuff, but Donghae just wanted to let Kyuhyun know that he supported him, and that he knew what was going on in Kyuhyun’s mind. Kyuhyun might hate it now, but in an hour or so, he would be happy with Donghae’s words.

And Donghae was right. Later that evening, when Kyuhyun was lying in bed, Donghae’s words kept repeating themselves in his mind. He did indeed have a chance later again. The world was not ending, _yet_.

  
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Kyuhyun was refilling the coffee machine when his phone rang, he grabbed it and looked to see whose name was on the screen.

 _Hyukjae_.

A smile appeared on his face. He had asked Hyukjae a few days earlier if he could call when Jongwoon was back home. The latter had been away for almost a week and Kyuhyun was getting impatient. Hyukjae had stared at him weirdly when he had asked that question, but eventually nodded in agreement. So that must be the reason he was calling now, wouldn’t it?

“Hello?”

“Kyuhyun-ah, it’s Hyukjae. Jongwoon just got home. Tell Donghae that you are both coming to join us for dinner at our place tonight, alright?”

“I will, see you tonight.”

Kyuhyun ended the phone call, still smiling from ear to ear, but also with this tense feeling in his stomach. Will he be brave enough to ask Jongwoon out today?

“Kyuhyun, stop daydreaming and serve those people!”

Kyuhyun woke up from his thoughts and looked around. His boss was yelling at him and pointing at all the customers who had formed a huge line in front of his counter. Kyuhyun quickly put away his phone and walked back to his place.

  
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Kyuhyun did not dress up extra well that evening, simply because he didn’t want to see Donghae’s grin the whole time. So Kyuhyun had decided to act and dress casually, as if nothing was going on.

It was Jongwoon who opened the door after they had rung the doorbell. He hugged Kyuhyun and Donghae as soon as he saw them, said that he missed both of them that week, and that he was happy to be home again. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but feel a tingle inside his stomach again when Jongwoon held him in his embrace. He even turned slightly red, but luckily no one noticed.

“I like what you did with your hair,” Kyuhyun mentioned during dinner, gesturing at Jongwoon’s hair. The latter had a completely different hairstyle and his hair was now brown, instead of the usual black. It looked good on him, no question there, but then again, Kyuhyun doubted that there was any hairstyle that would not look good on him.

“Thanks,” Jongwoon responded, smiling brightly at Kyuhyun’s compliment before continuing eating his food.

Kyuhyun glanced over at Donghae and Hyukjae. They, once again, had no attention for the other 2 people sitting at the table. Kyuhyun decided that it was now, or never.

“Do you want to do something with me next week?” Kyuhyun blurted out, scared that if he wouldn’t ask it now, he would never find the courage to do so.

“Do something with you next week?” Jongwoon repeated, surprised.

“Yeah.. as friends,” _AS FRIENDS?!_ Kyuhyun could punch himself in the face at that very moment, why did he say that?

“Oh, sure, sounds like fun,” Jongwoon smiled. “How about Wednesday?”

“Okay...” Kyuhyun muttered, he did not know what to say anymore. He blew it. Sure he was going to do something with Jongwoon next week, but the latter would think it was just a friends day out. That wasn’t Kyuhyun’s intention at all. But it was better than nothing, he figured.

Yet, Kyuhyun wondered how he'd made it to the end of the evening. After he screwed up asking Jongwoon out, he just ran out of stuff to talk about. He felt too stupid and was too mad at himself to be able to talk about random topics. Jongwoon didn’t seem to notice though, he kept talking about all kinds of stuff. Kyuhyun just nodded at his stories and was relieved when Donghae finally announced that they had to go. After saying their goodbyes and leaving their neighbor's house, Kyuhyun sighed loudly.

“So, did you ask him?” Donghae asked, looking at him with a disturbing overly-exited look on his face. Kyuhyun didn’t answer until they were inside their own house again.

“Donghae... I blew it,” he said, before walking upstairs to his room, he didn’t feel like talking about this right now, he felt stupid enough as it is already.

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	7. Chapter 5

It was 5 more days until Kyuhyun and Jongwoon’s ‘date’. Not much happened in those 5 days. Well, nothing except that our 4 friends exchanged house keys with each other. They all trusted each other completely, and besides being very good friends, Donghae en Hyukjae’s relationship was improving by the second.

The key exchange did change quite a bit. If there would be a stranger keeping an eye on them, it would be impossible for him to tell who lived in which house. Sometimes, when Kyuhyun came back early from work and Donghae was not home yet, he would find Hyukjae sitting in his living room watching a movie or Jongwoon playing one of Kyuhyun’s games on the Xbox. Or sometimes, when everyone was out, and Kyuhyun was free that day, he could spend hours in Hyukjae and Jongwoon’s house before any of them came home. All 4 of them now basically had 2 places to live.

It was 1 more day until Kyuhyun’s so-called date with Jongwoon when his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Kyuhyun, please tell me you can work from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening tomorrow!”

It was his boss.

“Well.. Actually, I have plans tomorrow,” Kyuhyun answered honestly. He and Jongwoon had agreed to go to town tomorrow at 10 in the morning, to hang out. Town could be pretty busy, so Kyuhyun had already planned to hold Jongwoon’s hand with the excuse that he didn’t want to lose him in the crowd. That sounds like a waterproof plan doesn’t it?

“Please Kyuhyun-ah, you are my last hope, everyone called in sick.”

Kyuhyun could hear the desperate tone in his boss' voice, and he knew for a fact that his boss would be begging him on his knees if Kyuhyun was standing in front of him right now.

“Fine...”

“You are going to be employee of the month! Thanks a lot, Kyuhyun!” His boss exclaimed happily, and he hung up fast, so Kyuhyun had no longer the chance to change his mind.

  
Kyuhyun sighed, this was just his luck. Guess his plan wasn’t that waterproof after all.

He called Jongwoon to inform him that he had to work tomorrow and that they had to reschedule their ‘friends day out’ to another day, but Jongwoon had a better idea. He would pick Kyuhyun up at 8 in the evening, at his work, and maybe they could go to the park from there instead.

Kyuhyun agreed on this idea, and when he laid down the phone he was grinning again. He had looked forward to some alone time with Jongwoon for the entire week, and after his boss called, all his hopes for this 'alone time' had shattered. But it turned out to be for nothing; he was still going to see Jongwoon tomorrow!

  
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That evening Kyuhyun didn’t feel too well. Donghae noticed it and felt Kyuhyun’s forehead.

“I think you have a fever, let me go get the thermometer.”

He walked out of the living room and returned less than 2 minutes later with a thermometer in his hand. He stuck it in Kyuhyun’s mouth and waited for it to finish its measuring.

Donghae turned out to be right, Kyuhyun was having a mild fever of 38.3 degrees. He left to the kitchen hurriedly and promised Kyuhyun to come back with a bowl of chicken soup. After all, Kyuhyun couldn’t get sick now, he was having his long-awaited date with Jongwoon tomorrow!

After eating the chicken soup, Kyuhyun went straight to bed, hoping that the fever will be gone when he wakes up the next day. He didn’t want to make his boss stressed again, and most of all, he didn’t want to call off his 'date' with Jongwoon. He'd really looked forward to it, so no fever should dare to ruin it for him. 

  
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The next morning, Kyuhyun felt much better.

Donghae still insisted on him measuring Kyuhyun’s temperature though. The result was 37.6 degrees. Still slightly higher than normal, but Kyuhyun felt good enough to go to work and he didn’t feel the urge to call Jongwoon to cancel their ‘date’.

Throughout the day, Kyuhyun started to slowly feel better. And around the evening he'd even forgotten that he was sick earlier.

Kyuhyun still had to work another half hour when Jongwoon arrived.

He ordered his usual coffee and sat down at his usual table. Jongwoon visited the café a lot, just to drink some coffee, sit at his table and read this gigantic book. But not today though, he didn’t bring his book. He just sat at his usual table and stared at Kyuhyun, who was doing his work chores, amused.

As soon as his shift was over, Kyuhyun walked to the back where the employee room was. He looked at himself in the mirror; his hair was a mess, he was in his work clothes and someone had spilled coffee all over his pants earlier. That would not lighten the romantic mood for sure. And the worst part was, that he hadn’t brought his comb or some clean clothes along with him.

He tried to flatten his hair by making it wet and pushing it down with his hand. Yes, his hair did indeed get flatter, but now he looked like he just got out of a huge rainstorm.

Should he call Donghae for backup?

Nah, Jongwoon isn’t that stupid. He would notice it if Donghae came running in, ran to the back and ran out again right before Kyuhyun would walk out with his hair perfect and wearing clean neat clothes. Nothing to do about it now anymore, it was time to just face him.

Kyuhyun actually stayed in the employee room for at least 20 minutes, only staring at himself in the mirror and wetting his hair. But Jongwoon didn’t seem to notice that it took Kyuhyun that long; he was busy talking to a few men at the bar. Kyuhyun walked towards him and tapped his shoulder.

“Ready to go?”

Jongwoon nodded, said his goodbyes to the men he was having a conversation with and followed Kyuhyun outside.

They went to the park. Kyuhyun never went there before, but Jongwoon knew the way quite well. He led Kyuhyun to a bench somewhere in the middle of the park and they sat down on it; facing a small playground. Even though it was already 8:45PM, there were still some young children playing at the playground.

“I always sit here when I need some time for myself,” Jongwoon said, for no reason in particular. They watched as a mom tried to grab her 2 sons, it was time to go to bed, but the 2 sons objected. They ran away from her and the mother started running after them. Jongwoon smiled at the sight. “Still carefree... Too bad life won’t stay that way forever.”

Kyuhyun nodded while watching the mom grab her 2 sons and dragging them away from the playground. The 2 boys pouted but did no longer object. The smallest boy even yawned before they disappeared out of sight.

Kyuhyun and Jongwoon talked for hours.

Kyuhyun learned a lot of new stuff about Jongwoon. The latter had no family left. His parents had died in a car crash when Jongwoon was 1 years old. He was raised by his grandmother, who passed away when he was 13. He had no other family left, so he ended up living with Hyukjae and his parents. He graduated as a veterinarian 2 years ago. He loved animals, and his biggest love in his life were his 3 turtles he had at home. When Jongwoon started talking about his 3 turtles, Kyuhyun responded with the words “ _I would love to meet them!_ ”. Afterward, the comment had sounded really stupid and Kyuhyun hated himself for saying it, but Jongwoon’s eyes had started to sparkle and Kyuhyun's embarrassment had disappeared immediately.

“I really love the stars,” Jongwoon suddenly said out of nothing. He was staring at the sky above them where the stars appeared a mere hour ago. It was already close to midnight, the time had flown by unknowingly.

Kyuhyun also turned his gaze onto the starry sky. He didn’t understand what was so interesting about it. All he saw was this dark, almost blackish sky, with white/yellowish dots in it. A moon more to the right, and every once in a while flashing lights would come over, indicating that there was a plane flying.

“Do you know what they say about stars?” Jongwoon asked, and he looked at Kyuhyun, who shook his head in response.

“No.”

Kyuhyun looked back at Jongwoon, but this one had already returned his gaze back onto the sky.

“They say that the people who die will be turned into stars. From up there, they can look down on us... Some stars shine brighter than others, right? Those are the ones watching over you. This way, people you lose are never really gone.”

Kyuhyun turned his gaze to the sky again as well. He didn’t really believe in these kinds of folktales, but after hearing this story the sky suddenly felt less dull. Kyuhyun’s eyes fell on one bright star in the sky. He couldn’t help but think about his grandma, who passed away a year earlier. Somehow that star did give Kyuhyun the feeling she was indeed watching over him.

For 5 consecutive minutes, they both stared at the stars without saying a word. The silence felt good. But, since it was getting really late, they eventually decided to start heading home.

“I had a really good time tonight,” Kyuhyun said sincere, facing Jongwoon while standing in his opened front door. He really had a good time, and as a bonus, he had learned a lot of new stuff about the other. And whenever Jongwoon had smiled this evening, it had make Kyuhyun’s heart beat faster. And Jongwoon had smiled _a lot_ that evening.

“Me too,” Jongwoon said, he was about to turn around and walk away when Kyuhyun grabbed his hand.

“Wait.”

Kyuhyun could feel a warm feeling, coming from his hand and spreading throughout his whole body. Jongwoon looked confused from their combined hands to Kyuhyun’s face and back to their hands. But before he could react, Kyuhyun pulled him in closer and placed his lips on Jongwoon’s. He slowly started to kiss Jongwoon, and it didn’t take too long for the other to respond. Kyuhyun started to explore the other’s mouth with his tongue, but just a few seconds later Jongwoon pulled back.

“I got to go,” Jongwoon mumbled, before turning around and walking away, not sparing Kyuhyun another look.

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	8. Chapter 6

Kyuhyun did not understand what exactly had happened earlier that night. At first, Jongwoon responded to the kiss, but then he pulled back and walked away? Kyuhyun often heard that he was a great kisser, so that couldn’t be the problem. Well, or all the other people lied to him about that, and he, in fact, was horrible at it.

He had expected Donghae to run to him as soon as he walked into the main hall, begging him to tell all the details, but he hadn’t. He hadn’t wait up for Kyuhyun to get home, and even though Kyuhyun was insulted by this at first, he had fallen over Hyukjae’s shoes in the hallway, which explained why Donghae had already gone to bed.

Kyuhyun turned around in his bed and looked at his alarm clock. It was 3:30 AM. He had been tossing around in bed for at least two hours. Too many things were running through his mind, but luckily, as his body started to get exhausted, he eventually managed to fall asleep.

  
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The doorbell rang.

Kyuhyun turned around in his bed and tried to ignore the annoying sound. This was his free day, he needed his free day. It was only 1 in the afternoon, still _way_ too early to get out of bed.

But the person at the front door was not giving up.

Kyuhyun eventually walked downstairs in just his boxers, not caring about how he looked on his free day. Donghae’s and Hyukjae’s shoes were gone, and it indicated that both of them had gone to work. He opened the door, barely awake, but what he saw outside woke him up instantly.

“Jongwoon, are you alright?” Kyuhyun asked worriedly, staring at Jongwoon who was leaning against the doorpost, trying to keep himself standing up. It seemed that he was unable to answer Kyuhyun at that moment, so Kyuhyun helped him into the house.

He cursed himself inside his head for the fact that he had opened the door in just his boxers, but Jongwoon didn’t really seem to care. After Kyuhyun made sure Jongwoon was comfortably lying on the couch, he excused himself for a few seconds to put on some clothes.

When he came back downstairs, Jongwoon was still lying the same way as Kyuhyun had left him; just staring at the ceiling blankly. As Kyuhyun approached him, he could tell that the other was sweating heavily. He felt Jongwoon’s forehead and was shocked by the burning feeling it gave. He ran to the medicine cabinet and took out the thermometer.

“Kyuhyun...” Jongwoon said, before Kyuhyun could stick the thermometer in his mouth.

“It’s just a thermometer, I think you have a fever.”

“Were you sick last night?”

It took Jongwoon a lot of effort to ask this question.

“Ehm... I was sick 2 days ago... Why?”

Jongwoon didn’t answer. Either he had no more strength to do so, or he just didn’t know what to answer. He just stared helplessly at the ceiling and allowed Kyuhyun to measure his temperature. 41.1. This was much higher than Kyuhyun’s fever 2 days ago. Kyuhyun started to panic. His mom had always told him that when someone’s temperature reaches higher than 41 degrees, this person was in deep trouble.

He got a cup of water and tried to make Jongwoon drink some of it; when someone has a fever, water is very important. Jongwoon only took one sip before giving up on drinking. Next, Kyuhyun got a towel, drenched it in cold water and laid it on Jongwoon’s forehead, hoping that that would cool him down somehow.

“Hyukjae...” Jongwoon managed to mumble.

“Hyukjae?”

Kyuhyun didn’t know what to do with this ‘information’.

“Do you want me to call him?”

Jongwoon nodded, and Kyuhyun felt stupid that he didn’t think about this earlier. He needed help. Though, he actually felt like calling his mom, but Jongwoon asked for Hyukjae, so Hyukjae it was.

He dialed Hyukjae’s phone number. Hyukjae answered at the first ring.

“Hello?”

“Hyukjae-ah. It’s Kyuhyun.”

“Ah, Kyuhyun! I am kind of busy right now, can you call me back later?”

“Jongwoon is sick.”

“… Jongwoon is sick?” There was a slight hesitance before Hyukjae repeated what Kyuhyun had just said.

“I didn’t know what to do, but Jongwoon said your name.”

“Jongwoon is sick?” Hyukjae repeated, his tone of voice starting to change. Kyuhyun noticed a slight panic in his voice.

“Ehm yeah, and I didn’t know wha–“

“How bad is it?”

“Very high fever.”

“Call the hospital, tell them it’s about Jongwoon, I’ll meet you there.”

Hyukjae abruptly ended the phone call. Kyuhyun stared at his phone for a few seconds before his thoughts started to work again.

_Call the hospital._

The hospital did send an ambulance the second Kyuhyun mentioned Jongwoon’s name. He was still on the phone with the hospital’s telephonist when the doorbell rang. After Kyuhyun opened the door, everything went in a blur.

The paramedics came in with a stretcher, instantly lifted Jongwoon up there and exported him out; the towel that was still resting on Jongwoon’s forehead was thrown neglectfully on the ground. They didn’t even ask Kyuhyun if he wanted to join inside the ambulance, they just drove off as soon as they could, with blaring sirens. Kyuhyun stared at the towel blankly, he felt slightly insecure about what could happen next.

  
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Kyuhyun drove himself to the hospital. The ambulance probably arrived 15 minutes earlier than Kyuhyun, because he got stuck in traffic. Damn traffic never worked with him if it needed to.

Kyuhyun parked his car and walked to the entrance of the hospital, where Hyukjae was waiting for him already.

“Is he here yet?” Hyukjae asked impatiently, and Kyuhyun nodded.

Hyukjae immediately rushed himself inside and went straight for the hospital’s counter. Kyuhyun watched as Hyukjae asked the woman sitting behind the counter something and the woman started to explain something by using her hands. When she seemed to have finished, Hyukjae gestured at Kyuhyun to follow him.

They walked in silence. Above the hallway were signs, signs which pointed out directions. It took Kyuhyun a few minutes to realize that they were following the Intensive Care sign.

“Are we going to the IC?”

Hyukjae just nodded at this question. Once they got there, a doctor came walking by. Hyukjae asked him where Jongwoon was and the man led them to a room.

Room 518.

They weren’t allowed to go in, but there was a large window allowing them to look inside. They watched as the doctors inside the room were turning on different monitors and attaching Jongwoon to those. He already had a small tube going up his nose, a larger tube going in his mouth and an IV attached to his wrist. He was no longer conscious.

When a doctor spotted the two men standing outside of the room, he walked out of the room and headed towards them. Another doctor closed the curtains in front of the window so Kyuhyun and Hyukjae could no longer see inside.

“Hyukjae-ah,” The doctor greeted Hyukjae, and he rested a hand on Hyukjae’s shoulder. Hyukjae kept staring at the window which was now only giving a view on a curtain. The doctor noticed that Kyuhyun was staring at him and found himself rude that he hadn’t introduced himself yet.

“Hi there, I’m doctor Han Geng, Jongwoon’s doctor,” he introduced, and he stuck his hand forward.

“I’m Kyuhyun...” Kyuhyun mumbled in return, and he hesitantly shook hands with the doctor.

“How is he doing?” Hyukjae asked, as he finally moved his gaze from the window to the earlier appeared doctor. Doctor Han Geng gestured for them to sit down on a few seats in the hallway and Kyuhyun and Hyukjae obeyed.

“His condition is critical, we are trying to stabilize him.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The day was just one big haze for him. Merely one hour ago Jongwoon was still standing at Kyuhyun’s door, and now he was lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life.

“I will inform you both as soon as I have new information.”

Both Kyuhyun and Hyukjae nodded in reply and Doctor Han Geng walked away. Kyuhyun instantly called Donghae to inform him about the situation. This one said he would come over as soon as possible.

“Is it my fault?” Kyuhyun asked, and he turned to Hyukjae; this question had been bothering him for a while now.

“How is this your fault?” Hyukjae snarled, and he didn’t look back to Kyuhyun, but Kyuhyun did notice that he looked devastated. His usual smile was gone, he was frowning all the time and he sounded annoyed.

“He asked me if I was sick.”

Jongwoon’s question kept running through Kyuhyun’s mind. ‘ _Were you sick last night?_ ’ Was this all his fault?

Hyukjae looked at Kyuhyun with a confused look in his eyes.

“I was having a fever the night before we went out together. Maybe I somehow passed it on to him?” Kyuhyun pondered. There must be a reason for Jongwoon to ask that one question right? “Maybe because of the kiss...”

“You kissed him? While you were sick?!” Kyuhyun looked at Hyukjae, who now stared at him with a scornful look in his eyes.

“I was feeling fine yesterday, honest-”

“Don’t you know it stays contagious for a few days after the symptoms are gone?!” Hyukjae was almost screaming at Kyuhyun.

“I don’t underst–“

Hyukjae stood up out of frustration, screaming and flinging his hands towards Kyuhyun.

“CHEMO RUINS IMMUNE SYSTEMS!”

“… Chemo?”

Hyukjae threw his hands in the air, admitting surrender, and walked back towards room 518. He continued his staring at the curtain, hoping to be able to somehow see through it, or to magically open it with mental powers.

When Donghae finally arrived at the Intensive Care, he found a really angry Hyukjae, who wouldn’t even let Donghae touch him, and a confused Kyuhyun, who was fighting his tears. Donghae sat down next to Kyuhyun, who instantly laid his head on Donghae’s shoulder, staring at the door of room 518. A tear escaped and started to roll down Kyuhyun’s cheek. He did not understand what was going on, he did not understand what was happening. But he did know Jongwoon was fighting for his life inside that room, and it did upset him a lot.

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	9. Chapter 7

Jongwoon miraculously made it through the night. Doctor Han Geng had told Hyukjae, Kyuhyun, and Donghae that they should prepare for the worst, that he feared for Jongwoon’s life, and that the chances of Jongwoon surviving that night were less than 10%. But he made it.

His condition was still doubtful, though. The fever was measured at 41.8 when he got brought in, this morning it was measured at 41.5. He was still attached to all kinds of wires, tubes, and machines. But at least he was still alive.

  
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“Kyuhyun, wake up!”

Kyuhyun felt how someone was trying to wake him up, by shaking him roughly, and he slowly opened his eyes. He got greeted by Donghae’s face, which was just inches away from his own. A pang traveled through his back as he tried to sit up. He briefly looked around to regain the memory of where he was. He was lying awkwardly on two chairs in the hallway of a hospital. Suddenly he remembered where he was and why he was there.

“How is he?”

Donghae didn’t answer. Instead, he pointed at the window of room 518. Kyuhyun stood up and stared inside. Jongwoon was still there, asleep, looking horrible, but alive. Hyukjae was sitting next to him, one of his hands was holding one of Jongwoon’s, the other was referred under his own head like a pillow. He was sleeping as well. It looked rather cute, but Kyuhyun could not forget how Hyukjae acted to him the day before. Hyukjae still blamed him for Jongwoon’s current condition.

“He is a real fighter.”

Kyuhyun looked aside to see who had just spoken to him. He found doctor Han Geng standing next to him, also staring inside Jongwoon’s room. Kyuhyun just smiled at the doctor before this one continued his way towards Jongwoon. Kyuhyun saw how the doctor renewed the iv-bag and tried to wake up Hyukjae.

When Hyukjae came outside the room, he glared a deadly stare at Kyuhyun before walking away; most likely towards the cafeteria, as he hadn’t eaten since Jongwoon was brought in at the hospital. Donghae noticed the look his boyfriend was giving his best friend, and he walked towards Kyuhyun.

“I will talk to him,” he said, and he patted Kyuhyun on his shoulder before running after Hyukjae. Kyuhyun remained staring inside room 518, watching doctor Han Geng’s every move. When the doctor was done he left the room again. Once outside, he found Kyuhyun still staring inside, at Jongwoon.

“You can go inside if you want,” he mentioned, giving Kyuhyun an encouraging smile, but the latter shook his head.

“I’m the reason he got here in the first place, I don’t want to make his condition worse again.”

Doctor Han Geng stared at him with a confused look on his face.

“He won’t get worse, just make sure you wear a mouth-cap.”

Once again, Kyuhyun shook his head.

“I’m fine remaining outside. If his condition gets worse after I went inside there, Hyukjae will never forgive me.”

Suddenly doctor Han Geng understood what it was all about. He knew Jongwoon and Hyukjae for a while now, and even though he didn’t know the whole situation, he knew how Hyukjae could react.

“Hyukjae is not blaming you, he is just scared, he doesn’t know how to deal with that. As for Jongwoon, I told him to stay inside the house as much as possible, to not get in contact with anyone, but he just ignores my warnings. Well, mine and Hyukjae’s warnings...” Doctor Han Geng smiled as he thought back at how Hyukjae scolded Jongwoon when the latter had said that he wasn’t going to just sit inside and be bored. “He is really protective over Jongwoon.”

Kyuhyun stayed silent for a while. When he had finally made up his mind about asking the doctor what exactly was wrong with Jongwoon, Doctor Han Geng had already disappeared. Kyuhyun remained standing outside; he had made up his mind and decided that he was not ready to go inside just yet. But when Jongwoon suddenly started to move, which indicated that he was awake, Kyuhyun saw no other choice but to go inside. Jongwoon probably didn’t even know where he was, and Hyukjae was nowhere to be seen. Kyuhyun was the only one around, so he had to explain it to him, right? Someone had to.

He put on his mouth-cap, which was given to him a while ago by an unknown doctor, before walking inside; Jongwoon was very vulnerable, so mouth-caps were a precaution. When Kyuhyun finally entered the room, Jongwoon was slightly panicking; he anxiously scanned the room. As soon as he laid eyes on Kyuhyun, he became calmer. He was unable to speak, as the large tube was still going down his throat, but Kyuhyun could tell he wanted to ask a lot of questions.

“You are in the hospital,” Kyuhyun stated while walking towards Jongwoon and sitting down on a chair beside his bed. Jongwoon’s gaze didn’t change; Kyuhyun had to explain more.

“You already knew that, didn’t you? With all the machines and stuff,” Kyuhyun nervously started to laugh, he was not good in this.

He used to be a very strong person. When his grandma was in the hospital, in a similar room as Jongwoon was, also with all the machines and wires, it was Kyuhyun who always sat beside her. It was Kyuhyun who always supported her and talked to her. When his parents broke down seeing her like that, Kyuhyun was the one telling them it would be alright. And he believed it would be. He used to not be bothered by all the machines and wires, but that was before his grandma died in front of him. Before the heart machine started to produce just one continuous soul-cutting tone. Ever since that, he just couldn’t be near any hospital. Seeing Jongwoon like this made him relive the moment of his grandma breathing her last breath. All he could think about was leaving this room as quick as possible, but he couldn’t. Jongwoon needed him.

Kyuhyun tried to explain everything to Jongwoon. He told him every single detail he remembered. He did not mention about Hyukjae’s outburst though, that was something between Kyuhyun and Hyukjae that Jongwoon didn’t need to know.

“And that is how you ended up here,” Kyuhyun finished his explanation.

Jongwoon remained staring at him, with a now unreadable expression, but Kyuhyun knew he couldn’t explain more, he simply didn’t know anything more. He heard a knock on the window and looked backward. He saw Donghae waving and gesturing at him, signing him to get outside, Hyukjae stood next to Donghae, staring from Jongwoon to Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun turned back to Jongwoon, he knew he had to go talk to Hyukjae, but he just wanted to say one last thing to Jongwoon.

“I’m sorry about the kiss, I shouldn’t have kissed you. I’m also sorry for making you sick like this.”

Kyuhyun grabbed Jongwoon’s hand lying closest to him with both of his own.

“I don’t know what the chemo is for, but I just know you are going to be alright. Don’t give up, okay?”

With that, Kyuhyun beamed one last smile to Jongwoon, even though it was probably unseeable because of the mouth-cap, before walking outside the room to face Hyukjae.

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	10. Chapter 8

Kyuhyun walked out of the room towards Hyukjae and Donghae, who still remained staring inside.

“What did you tell him?” Hyukjae asked, pointing towards Jongwoon who was desperately trying to sit up but failed miserably. “He is really restless.”

Kyuhyun turned to look at Donghae. Hyukjae’s sudden change of attitude (he did no longer sound annoyed or angry, nor did he ignore Kyuhyun) had to be because of something Donghae had said to him.

Donghae just smiled at him in return, gestured his head towards Hyukjae, who was still standing towards them with his back, and raised his eyebrows as a hint for Kyuhyun to go talk to him. Then Donghae turned around and walked away, leaving an uneasy Kyuhyun with a very different out-of-character behaving Hyukjae.

“J-just s-stuff,” Kyuhyun stuttered, he couldn’t remember the last time he'd felt this tense.

The whole situation simply stressed him out. Even though Kyuhyun didn’t need many people around him, he didn't want to lose the people he actually did like and trust. Hyukjae was his friend and somehow they had ended up in a stupid quarrel. It was something Kyuhyun had a hard time with. Fighting his friends made him VERY uneasy. It’s not like he is some kind of hermit who doesn’t need anyone.

“Can we talk?” Hyukjae turned around to face Kyuhyun when saying this. He looked very serious; a side of Hyukjae that Kyuhyun had never seen before. Well, not before yesterday, that is.

Kyuhyun nodded at Hyukjae’s question and they both walked towards the cafeteria; both having decided in utter silence that it would be better to talk there, because, if they ended up having the conversation next to Jongwoon’s room, he might overhear them. And they really didn't want him to have more stuff to worry about.

They both sat down across from each other at a table in the hospital's cafeteria, which was quite an extraordinary place by itself. Both doctors and visitors could sit down at this cafeteria to either eat or drink something. Even patients sometimes came there to sit and eat a bit. But even though the sounds of talking and laughter made it feel like they weren’t in a hospital, the looks of the place told them differently. Everything was white, just like the rest of the hospital; white made it seem more sterile. Doctors sat in their doctors-uniform. Patients sometimes had IVs with them, hanging on some kind of standard which kept the IVs working. Some visitors were crying at their table because their relative or friend was not doing well. Let's just say that a lot of things happened at the cafeteria.

“Kyuhyun... I’m sorry for my behavior earlier. I shouldn’t have acted the way I did... I was just... just...” Hyukjae's voice started to tremble, making it hard for him to continue. He had never been good at explaining his feelings, even Donghae had told Kyuhyun that a while ago. He also never admitted that he is wrong, so hearing him say that he was sorry made Kyuhyun feel slightly relieved. It meant that he was sincerely feeling sorry. “I was just scared," he added with a lot of effort.

Hyukjae’s gaze went down to the table surface. Kyuhyun knew he had to say something in return, to make Hyukjae more comfortable, but he didn’t know what to say. He was still mad at Hyukjae for blaming him like that.

“It’s okay,” Kyuhyun eventually settled down for. It was probably the best to just forgive and forget. Kyuhyun hates people who hold grudges, so he shouldn’t do that either to avoid being a hypocrite.

“Don’t say that, I was wrong. I just... I thought I’d lost him,” Hyukjae said, as he rested his forehead in both of his hand palms, as his elbows rested on the table. ”When you called me and told me he was sick, my heart stopped beating, my mind stopped working...” he sighed wearily.

“What did you mean with ‘chemo’?”

Kyuhyun could no longer keep this question to himself. He needed to know. Didn’t he have the right to know what was wrong? Jongwoon was his friend after all.

Hyukjae looked up and stared into Kyuhyun’s eyes for a few seconds before averting his stare again.

“Chemotherapy.”

“Chemotherapy for what?”

Hyukjae returned his gaze back to the table surface; biting his lower lip in the process, making it obvious that he wasn't really in the mood for having this conversation right now, but knowing that he didn't have any other choice.

“Do you remember that night we had that dance-battle? Jongwoon couldn’t dance because of his back?” Hyukjae asked, and Kyuhyun nodded in reply. “Bone cancer. He has bone cancer... It’s located in his lower back,” Hyukjae said, with his voice almost inaudible, but Kyuhyun could still hear it. He did not know how to respond, though. All the information rushed through his head as his mind tried hard to process it.

Suddenly, Hyukjae stood up.

“I'll go check on how he's doing. He must be lonely. He was awake, right? I have so much to tell him!” Hyukjae rambled, and he rushed himself back towards the IC, leaving a completely flabbergasted Kyuhyun behind; all on his own.

  
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About 3 days later, Jongwoon’s fever had reduced enough to transfer him from the IC to a normal hospital room.

The tube going down his throat was finally removed, and with that, he looked a lot healthier. Though, he still slept most of the time, still exhausted from fighting the now lower fever. Doctor Han Geng was happy with the progress Jongwoon had made, and he assured Hyukjae, Kyuhyun, and Donghae that Jongwoon would most likely be released from the hospital within the upcoming 7 days.

After Kyuhyun had heard from Hyukjae what Jongwoon actually was suffering from and Hyukjae had walked away all of the sudden, Kyuhyun had instantly started to look for Donghae; Donghae, who was already up-to-date about Jongwoon’s situation because Hyukjae had told him about it when he had tried to talk some sense back into his silly boyfriend earlier.

Kyuhyun and Donghae decided that they were both mad at Hyukjae and Jongwoon for not informing them about it in the first place. How could they keep something _that_ important away from them? But because they were still at the hospital, they decided this was not the right time, nor the right place, to confront them about it.

Jongwoon had a lot of visitors while staying at the hospital. Kyuhyun and Donghae had never seen those people before. Hyukjae, on the other hand, had. He greeted most of them as if they were long lost friends, hugged with them, and even said to them that he had missed them tremendously. Even some hospital patients (Kyuhyun recognized them as hospital patients because of the hospital gowns they were wearing) and doctors (mind the doctor uniform) visited him.

All this attention made Jongwoon revive. Due to the good healing process, he was sent back home after just 3 days of staying in the normal hospital room (so in total he'd spent 7 days at the hospital). Doctor Han Geng first lectured him that he should take better care of his health, but eventually, Jongwoon walked out of the front door of the hospital together with his 3 friends.

As they stood outside, Jongwoon glanced back at the hospital; his 3 friends did the same.

“Let’s not return here for something serious any time soon,” he stated, smiling and with a positive attitude, before continuing to walk towards the car.

Kyuhyun, Donghae, and Hyukjae all exchanged glances with each other; how on earth could he be so positive? But somehow, Jongwoon’s positivity was contagious. They all glanced back at the hospital and smiled. They were certain they wouldn't return there for something serious any time soon.

  
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The day after Jongwoon had returned home, Kyuhyun, Donghae, and Hyukjae all had to go to work. They had all been getting off from work (and skipped school, in Kyuhyun’s case) until Jongwoon would be home again. Though, they all asked him if they should take another day off to take care of him, just in case. But Jongwoon said he was going to be just fine alone at home and that they shouldn’t bother too much about him. So that is why all of them went to work, even though it did go against their inner feelings.

Kyuhyun was the first to return home. His boss had noticed that Kyuhyun’s mind was somewhere else and he was not paying attention to his work, so Kyuhyun was sent home for being... well, useless.

As Kyuhyun drove onto their square, he glanced over to Jongwoon and Hyukjae’s house. He had to blink a few times because he wasn't sure if he was seeing everything right. The front yard of the house was an oasis of colors. Mostly red, but also yellow, purple, pink, white. It were roses, millions (well, it looked like millions) of roses.

As Kyuhyun turned his gaze to his own and Donghae’s house, he saw kind of the same. Though, only half of the front yard was done.

As he parked his car, Jongwoon appeared from behind some roses in Kyuhyun and Donghae’s front yard and smiled at Kyuhyun as the latter stepped out of his car.

“What are you doing?” Kyuhyun asked, maybe slightly more rude than intended, but he had worried all day over Jongwoon; only to find him having some fun in the yard? He had to take it slow to regain his strength. Cultivating gardens was not taking it slow and it surely didn't help with regaining strength.

Jongwoon looked around, wondering if there was something wrongly planted, but he couldn’t find any mistake.

“I need a hobby, don’t I?” Jongwoon replied, and he looked at Kyuhyun as if, what he had just said, was the most logical thing in the world. “Han Geng told me to get a hobby I can do at home, so I don’t go out too much, I figured I could start gardening. We never got to finish our front yards since we all moved here.”

Kyuhyun nodded at the explanation. It actually looked pretty nice. Finally their houses started to look finished and homey. He smiled at Jongwoon, trying to look apologetic for his rude tone earlier.

“I like roses,” Kyuhyun mentioned, still smiling.

Jongwoon smiled back at Kyuhyun. “Me too, they are my favorite kind of flower. Especially the red ones, that is why there is more red than other colors in the yard. I hope that is okay.”

“Looks perfect!”

Kyuhyun opened the front door and disappeared inside as fast as he could. He didn’t know what else to say to Jongwoon. His smile still made Kyuhyun feel warm inside, it still made his stomach tingle. But he was still mad about the fact that Jongwoon hadn’t told him about his disease. He also felt insecure because of the kiss that Jongwoon had pulled away from, and, more importantly, got sick of. All these things made Kyuhyun feel too awkward to talk to Jongwoon.

As Kyuhyun sighed to himself and sat down on the floor of the hallway, the front door rattled and opened. Jongwoon put his key back into his pocket as he closed the door behind him, before sitting down next to Kyuhyun.

“Did I say something wrong?” He asked softly, and he looked at Kyuhyun both questioningly and confused.

After 2 minutes of silence, Kyuhyun finally spoke.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I just thought about the roses this morning when you all had left for work alrea-”

“I meant your disease,” Kyuhyun said, with a slight demanding/accusing tone in his voice while frowning. 

“Oh...” Jongwoon turned his gaze towards his hands, trying to avoid Kyuhyun’s piercing look. “I didn’t think I had to.”

“You didn’t think you had to?” Disbelief was clearly visible on Kyuhyun's face. “You just planned to die without informing us beforehand?” Kyuhyun couldn’t really control himself anymore; not telling them was just an act of selfishness in his eyes.

“No. I’m not going to die Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon snapped at Kyuhyun and stood up. “I am going to heal. Me not telling you means you both didn’t have to worry about me. What does not know, can not hurt.”

He walked towards the living room and sat down on the couch. He was tired of all the gardening work he had done that day, fighting with Kyuhyun was not something he'd planned to also encounter. Kyuhyun stood up and also sat down on the couch, next to Jongwoon. He was happy Jongwoon didn’t instantly walk away from him again.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have kissed you, and you wouldn’t have almost died.”

“Indeed.”

Kyuhyun expected that Jongwoon was taking a small break before continuing making his point, but he didn’t continue talking.

“Indeed?” Kyuhyun repeated after a while, as he was not taking that as an answer. He'd finally found the guts to start about that damn kiss, he wanted a more satisfying answer. He _needed_ a more satisfying answer. Jongwoon turned his gaze to Kyuhyun and smiled, making Kyuhyun’s stomach tingle once again.

“I don’t want to be treated differently. I’m a normal person, just like you,” Jongwoon looked at the ceiling for a while, thinking about what to say next. “I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that kiss for anything in the world,” he smiled once again, satisfied with his own answer.

“But... you pulled away. You knew it would make you sick, so you pulled away.”

“I didn’t know it would make me sick. And even if I did, I would not have pulled away because of that.”

Kyuhyun looked at Jongwoon confused, so this one continued.

“I pulled away because I didn’t think it was suitable for me to be dating anyone in my current condition. I don’t want to leave someone behind like that.”

“Didn’t you just say that you were going to heal? Then what is the problem?” Kyuhyun stated witty. Jongwoon thought about it for a moment before staring at Kyuhyun in pure amazement.

“You are right, there is no problem!”

He slowly inched closer to Kyuhyun, but this one blocked the other.

“I have a headache, should not kiss me the upcoming few days,” Kyuhyun stated like a professor lecturing his pupils. The only thing Kyuhyun was missing were some glasses and he could easily pass as one. Jongwoon laughed.

“Shut up fool and kiss me.”

Once again their lips met, and this time, no-one pulled away.

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	11. Chapter 9

_Love. The most mesmerizing feeling someone can experience. The most mysterious feeling someone can feel. It can strike you at any moment; sometimes it takes years to finally realize you love someone; sometimes it takes you just a second to find out._

  
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Kyuhyun and Jongwoon were now officially together. Well, officially... Not official enough for Kyuhyun to tell Donghae about it. Sure, Kyuhyun was happy that Jongwoon felt the same way about him as he felt about Jongwoon, but Kyuhyun doubted that Donghae would be happy about it.

Not after they had found out about Jongwoon’s illness.

Donghae always wanted what was best for Kyuhyun, and dating someone seriously ill might not be the smartest idea. This was the first thing in his life that Kyuhyun kept secret from Donghae. But he didn’t plan to keep this secret for long, just a few more days, so Kyuhyun could convince himself of the idea that dating someone seriously ill was nothing dumb after all.

Jongwoon did notice Kyuhyun’s doubt. But when he asked if something was wrong, Kyuhyun just shrugged and answered that everything was fine. A few days earlier (about 3 days after they “officially got together”), they had decided to just try to forget about the whole illness thing. Jongwoon was convinced that he was going to get better in no time, so talking about it all the time would just be a waste of time. He also said that he did not want this illness to be like a huge storm cloud waiting to pour all the rain out over their newly started relationship.

Even though Kyuhyun initially had agreed to it, he soon started to change his mind. He still had a million questions left to ask about the illness. He actually didn’t know much about it. But Jongwoon basically begged him to forget about him being ill, so Kyuhyun didn’t dare to start talking about it again.

Two weeks passed. Kyuhyun and Jongwoon grew closer to each other every day. Donghae was still oblivious about the whole thing, even though Hyukjae had heard about it from Jongwoon already. Maybe Hyukjae respected their privacy, maybe he understood why Kyuhyun hadn’t told Donghae yet, or maybe he just didn’t want to meddle. Whichever it was, he did not tell Donghae. He hadn't really talked with Kyuhyun about it yet either, but that was probably because Donghae hung around him every time. Well, almost every time.

  
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Kyuhyun opened the front door and walked inside. Even though he'd only had 2 hours of school today and it was still morning, he was feeling tired already. He was considering taking a nap until Donghae came home later, but got surprised when he saw Hyukjae half sitting, half lying on the couch in the living room. He was reading some giant book (it looked remarkably similar to the book Jongwoon always reads whenever he visits the cafe to drink some coffee) and did not notice Kyuhyun come in.

“Hyukjae-ah.”

Hyukjae got startled by the sudden sound and sat straight immediately as if Kyuhyun hadn't just seen him lying on the couch. Kyuhyun smirked, scaring people was really fun.

“Kyuhyun-ah, you are home early!”

“Hmm... Do you want something to drink?”

“Some juice would be nice,” Hyukjae answered and Kyuhyun made his way to the kitchen to get some juice for the both of them. When he got back with 2 cups of orange juice, Hyukjae had already put away his book and smiled to Kyuhyun as the latter put 1 cup with juice on the table and brought the other one to his own lips.

“You are probably wondering what I am doing here,” Hyukjae started, facing Kyuhyun directly, making Kyuhyun unable to drink; he really couldn’t drink with people staring at him.

“Not really,” Kyuhyun answered, and he put his cup down on the table. He really wasn’t wondering what Hyukjae was doing here. It had already happened a lot of times before that Hyukjae would just hang out in Kyuhyun and Donghae’s house when no one was at home. He said it bored him to be at the same place all the time, so therefore he would regularly come to KyuHae’s house. Change of the environment, he called it.

“Well, I was actually waiting for you.”

“For me?”

That was rare, normally Hyukjae would wait for Donghae, or leave when Kyuhyun came home. And yes, they were friends. It went fine if either Jongwoon or Donghae was around, but the 2 of them, in one room, alone? That just somehow always led to awkwardness.

“Yes. Jongwoon told me a week ago that the 2 of you are together, I was looking for a moment to talk to you about that in private.”

Kyuhyun’s facial expression didn’t change, so Hyukjae took it as a sign that he could continue.

“I just wanted to say that I’m happy it’s you, Kyuhyun. I know that he is safe with you.”

Kyuhyun’s mouth unwillingly changed into a smile. Even though it was only Hyukjae giving them ‘approval’, it felt like the whole world accepted it. For Kyuhyun, this meant a lot.

“He's looking so much happier for the last two weeks. At first, I told him to not get involved with anyone, because he’s sick. But I might have been wrong, I think love is doing him well,” Hyukjae said, and he looked at the wall while smiling to himself, ‘ _maybe our relationship is good for him too_ ’, Kyuhyun thought to himself.

“Just don’t dare to kiss him when you are sick!” Hyukjae emphasized, and he tried to make an angry face towards Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun solemnly raised his hand and promised Hyukjae that he would never kiss Jongwoon when he was not feeling well. Not even if he had a slight headache, or possible pain in his finger. They both laughed about this for a little.

“Well, with that solved, you are free tomorrow, right?” Hyukjae turned his serious face on again.

“Yes,” Kyuhyun answered, wondering why Hyukjae asked this. He himself had to work, so it was not like they could do anything together or something.

“Good, I couldn’t get a day off of work anymore, because I used all of my free days the week Jongwoon was in the hospital,” Hyukjae scolded his work almost inaudible, before continuing. “Anyway, Jongwoon has an appointment at the hospital tomorrow, can you take him there? He said he was fine with going alone, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Oh! Sure. What time? What for?”

“10.30 in the morning, chemo.”

“Oh... Yeah, I can do that, anything I should know beforehand?”

Actually, Kyuhyun didn’t want to do it. He tried really hard to forget about the whole illness thing. Taking Jongwoon to the hospital would make Kyuhyun think about it again. But Jongwoon really couldn’t go alone. So Kyuhyun basically had no other choice.

“Hmm, not really. Normally he takes it alright. Just expect him to not talk afterward. He gets really tired from it... And nauseous.” Hyukjae answered, nodding slowly while thinking about if there was anything else Kyuhyun should know, but couldn’t think of anything. As he turned his gaze back to Kyuhyun, he could see that Kyuhyun was not looking forward to this hospital trip. “You’ll be fine Kyuhyun, don’t worry.”

They talked a bit more about all kinds of stuff before Hyukjae had to go; he had to do grocery shopping. Kyuhyun waved Hyukjae goodbye and went upstairs to his room, finally able to take the nap that he had planned to take an hour earlier.

  
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As Kyuhyun looked outside that evening, he saw Jongwoon sitting on a seat on the porch of his and Hyukjae’s house. Kyuhyun walked outside to him. He hadn’t seen him all day, so he had missed him tremendously. The first thing Kyuhyun noticed, even before he was anywhere near to Jongwoon, was the latter’s new hairstyle. Even though he had changed his hair just a few weeks earlier, it was now a completely different style again. This time his hair was black at the bottom, but blond on top. Slightly longer than earlier, so Kyuhyun figured he must have gotten extensions. It looked good on him though, so Kyuhyun didn’t complain.

“Hey,” Kyuhyun greeted him. Jongwoon looked up and smiled at Kyuhyun as his greeting before turning his eyes back to the dark square ahead of them. Kyuhyun sat down on the chair next to Jongwoon. “You had fun today? I like your new hair.”

“Hmm.”

“Shouldn’t you go inside? It’s cold.”

“Soon.” Jongwoon turned his gaze to Kyuhyun and smiled. “You are cute when you are worrying about me.”

“I’m not worried, I was just saying it because I’m freezing here.” Jongwoon just kept smiling, he knew better.

“So you are taking me to the hospital tomorrow?”

“Yeah, if that is okay with you.”

Jongwoon nodded and soon the subject changed to some random stuff. Kyuhyun talked about his school day, his talk with Hyukjae, and about some kid on the train who tried to put gum in his mom’s hair, while Jongwoon talked about his day and his friends that he had gone out with etc. They talked until Kyuhyun yawned (he was tired because he had been up since 7 in the morning) and Jongwoon told him to go back home to get some rest.

“What were you doing outside anyway?!” Kyuhyun shouted from his front door to Jongwoon, who was still sitting on the porch.

“Just watching the stars, Kyuhyun!” Jongwoon yelled back, pointing his finger to the sky and beaming a bright smile to Kyuhyun before walking inside his own house. Kyuhyun looked up, ‘ _oh right.. The stars_.’

  
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Kyuhyun’s alarm clock went off at 7 AM in the morning.

Even though they didn't have to leave for the hospital at 9.30 on its earliest, Kyuhyun just didn’t want to be late. Somehow this appointment felt important to him, so he wasn’t going to risk oversleeping. He showered, got dressed, ate breakfast and did everything he had to to get himself ready for the trip.

When he was done he sighed and looked at the clock. 7:49. ‘ _Great_.’

He decided to play a game while waiting for the clock to point out 9:00. At exactly 9:00 he closed his game, grabbed his coat and walked over to Jongwoon’s house. Jongwoon, it turned out, was not ready to go yet at all. In fact, he looked as if he had just gotten out of bed. Kyuhyun helped him with making breakfast, but Jongwoon didn’t eat that much. Kyuhyun decided not to nag about it, as Jongwoon seemed very moody and tense.

They arrived at the hospital at 10:20. They were told to wait inside a room, the doctor would join them very soon.

As Jongwoon sat down on the bed in the room, Kyuhyun stood in front of him. Kyuhyun noticed that Jongwoon really was not looking forward to what was about to happen and it broke Kyuhyun’s heart slightly to see him like this. Kyuhyun wanted to protect Jongwoon, he wanted to cheer his boyfriend up. He wanted to see him smile. As Kyuhyun hugged Jongwoon (he did not know how they got into this position, but it felt good), the latter hugged Kyuhyun very tightly. Kyuhyun could only hope Jongwoon could get some comfort out of this.

“Jongwoon-ah.”

A familiar doctor walked into the room, staring at some papers in his hands. Kyuhyun and Jongwoon quickly released each other from their hold. Jongwoon, however, grabbed Kyuhyun’s hand instead and held it tight.

“Ah Kyuhyun-sshi, we have met before,” the doctor said as soon as he laid eyes on Kyuhyun. He walked forward and shook both Jongwoon’s and Kyuhyun’s hand.

Kyuhyun recognized him as doctor Han Geng, the doctor that had taken care of Jongwoon when he'd had that high fever a few weeks ago.

“How are you feeling today?” Doctor Han Geng asked Jongwoon, redirecting his attention on his patient.

The two of them discussed some things before the doctor said he would go get the stuff needed, and told Jongwoon to lay down and get comfortable on the bed. Jongwoon did as he was told to do, while the doctor left the room to get everything he needed.

“Kyuhyun-ah,” Jongwoon squeezed Kyuhyun’s hand as he tried to get the latter’s attention. “Do you mind waiting outside until I’m done? I rather not have people around...”

He looked at Kyuhyun with a glimmer of guilt in his eyes, but Kyuhyun didn’t mind waiting outside.

“I don’t mind at all,” he replied.

As he left the room he turned back one more time, Jongwoon was smiling weakly at him and Kyuhyun smiled back. “Good luck...” Kyuhyun said, though he wasn’t really sure if saying that was appropriate; he just wanted to make the other feel supported. Jongwoon mumbled a 'thanks' and Kyuhyun left the room.

   
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It took longer than Kyuhyun had expected. Every now and then doctor Han Geng would sit down next to him and tell him that Jongwoon was doing fine, and then left again. Kyuhyun was grateful towards the doctor for keeping him up to date with Jongwoon’s status. If the doctor didn’t inform Kyuhyun al the time, Kyuhyun had no idea how he would have been doing if he hadn't heard anything for so long..

“He’s done, he will come out in a bit,” Doctor Han Geng said, as he came sitting down next to Kyuhyun once again.

“How is he feeling?” Kyuhyun asked as he remembered Hyukjae’s words. ‘ _He gets really tired from it. And nauseous_.’

“Not too well,” Doctor Han Geng answered, as both of them watched Jongwoon walk out of the room towards them. He was very pale. Much paler than before. “Take good care of him, Kyuhyun.”

As Jongwoon joined them, doctor Han Geng stood up, said his goodbye to the both of them, wished Jongwoon well and walked away. Jongwoon only nodded to him and did not say a word. Hyukjae was right, he really does not talk afterward.

Jongwoon immediately started to stride towards the car and Kyuhyun followed. Kyuhyun was amazed that Jongwoon still had this much energy left to walk to the car as fast as this.

As they both took a seat in the car, Kyuhyun noticed that Jongwoon really was looking horrible. As he asked Jongwoon if he was feeling okay, the latter just nodded slightly, and Kyuhyun decided it was best to just drive them home as quick as possible. Hyukjae did tell him Jongwoon did not talk afterward, so Kyuhyun asking questions was kind of... illogical.

Luckily the traffic wasn’t too busy on the road, so the drive home advanced well. They were already halfway home when Jongwoon suddenly grabbed Kyuhyun’s hand, which was on the gearshift.

“Stop the car,” he said.

“What?” Kyuhyun couldn’t really process what Jongwoon was asking, he hadn’t expected him to talk in the first place.

“Please stop the car.”

The demanding tone in Jongwoon’s voice slightly scared Kyuhyun, so therefore he immediately did what he was told. He drove over to the emergency lane and slowed down the car. Even before the car had stopped Jongwoon opened his door and hang outside; Kyuhyun could clearly hear gagging sounds.

Kyuhyun just sat there. Frozen in his seat. Was he supposed to pat him on his back? Or should he just silently wait? Should he drive back to the hospital? Because maybe something had gone wrong?

Kyuhyun didn’t know.

He started to panic, even though it was not him who was throwing out everything that had gone in earlier, and maybe even some more. After about 3 minutes Jongwoon got up again, closed the door and rested his head against the headrest. He closed his eyes and Kyuhyun just stared at him, unsure about what to do.

“Go,” Jongwoon said, and Kyuhyun started the engine.

“Just tell me if I have to pull over again,” Kyuhyun said, hesitantly, still unsure about whether he had to continue driving home or if he had to turn around to head back to the hospital. Jongwoon nodded in response and Kyuhyun drove as fast as he could back home. He did overpass the speed limit, but he didn’t care. This was freaky.

When they arrived back at their houses, Kyuhyun opened the door of Jongwoon and Hyukjae’s house for Jongwoon. The latter instantly ran inside, dashing towards the toilet. Kyuhyun closed the door behind him, walked over to the phone and called Hyukjae. Kyuhyun couldn’t do this. This might sound unloving, or maybe a bit arrogant, but he did not know how to take care of Jongwoon at this point. He was scared.

Hyukjae came over as fast as he could. Kyuhyun had never felt more relieved to see Hyukjae than that day. Only after Hyukjae arrived, Jongwoon got out of the toilet. He looked weak and sad.

“Kyuhyun-ah... I’m sorry,” he mumbled, and he looked at Kyuhyun with sad eyes, but Kyuhyun did not respond. He only turned around and walked out of the house as fast as he could, away from that scary place.

  
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That evening Kyuhyun told Donghae the whole story, from his feelings for Jongwoon until what happened that day, crying his little eyes out. He had never felt this upset before. He, too, believed that Jongwoon would be just fine, that the cancer would go away. But after what he had seen today, the disease suddenly felt more real. More dangerous. And on top of all that had happened, he was angry at himself for not telling Jongwoon that it was alright, that it was not his fault when he had said sorry earlier.

Donghae guided Kyuhyun upstairs into his bed. It was for the best if Kyuhyun went to sleep now, tomorrow he would probably feel better.

Donghae pushed Kyuhyun under the blankets and tucked him in. Before Donghae was able to walk out of the room, Kyuhyun sat up straight in his bed and looked through his bedroom window towards the neighbor's house. The window he could see (on the 1st floor) was from Jongwoon’s bedroom, he knew that. The lights were already off. In fact, the whole house was dark.

“Would he be alright, Donghae?”

Donghae looked at him, walked back and sat down on the side of Kyuhyun’s bed, also looking at the black window from Jongwoon’s room.

“He will, Kyuhyun,” Donghae said, as he side-hugged his best friend, “He will...”

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	12. Chapter 10

For 5 days straight, Jongwoon came over to Kyuhyun’s and Donghae’s house to look for Kyuhyun. It was always Donghae who opened the door and it was always Donghae telling Jongwoon that Kyuhyun really could not see him right now. Jongwoon always answered that he understood and that he would return the next day to see if Kyuhyun was ready then. The 6th day Jongwoon didn’t come anymore. At that day, Kyuhyun waited for hours for Jongwoon to come. Because all those other days, Kyuhyun had stared outside the window (without Jongwoon noticing him, of course), so he could take a glance at Jongwoon as he walked towards the front door; to see if he was looking alright.

But why was Kyuhyun acting this way? Because guilt took control of him. His feelings for Jongwoon were tremendously big, but Kyuhyun knew he could not give Jongwoon what he needed. He could not take care of him and he could also not forget about the disease that easily. He just wasn’t a person who could stay insecure about the future. And who was Kyuhyun to make Jongwoon’s life even harder than it already was, by asking about his disease, if the latter didn’t want to talk about it? Kyuhyun was no one. That’s why he decided to avoid Jongwoon, to stop being boyfriend-boyfriend, friend-friend, or whatever. Jongwoon was better off without Kyuhyun, so he thought.

However, Kyuhyun still had to go to work. And on the 7th day after the ‘scary’ event, Jongwoon came to the café. Kyuhyun’s heart stopped beating for a small moment as soon as his eyes spotted Jongwoon. Unfortunately he'd just had a break, so he could not take a break again to avoid the man who had just came walking in. Jongwoon also saw Kyuhyun. They exchanged glances for a short moment before Jongwoon walked towards the counter to order. Kyuhyun hastily looked around if there was someone who could take his cashier place for a bit, but he saw no one.

“Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon smiled and Kyuhyun froze for a short moment, unsure of what to say. He decided to just act like a dumb fool who didn’t know the person standing in front of him.

“Can I take your order?”

“Ehw...” Jongwoon was slightly startled by Kyuhyun’s cold behavior. However, he finally realized what Kyuhyun had tried to 'tell' him the last 7 days. He wasn’t waiting to be ready to face him again, he was just ditching him. “One black coffee, please,” Jongwoon ordered, and he remained staring to Kyuhyun, who felt really uncomfortable under Jongwoon’s stare. As Kyuhyun turned around to make one black coffee, he could feel Jongwoon’s eyes drilling into the back of his skull. As he turned around and handed Jongwoon his coffee, this one just nodded as a ‘thank you’ and walked to his usual table to read his usual book.

Three hours later, when Kyuhyun’s shift ended, Jongwoon was still there. Apparently he had finished reading his book, because it was lying closed in front of him, and he was staring outside to kill some time. Kyuhyun tried to leave unnoticeable, but Jongwoon spotted him.

“Kyuhyun-ah, wait!” He yelled, and Kyuhyun stood still on his spot. Running away now, after hearing him yell, would be way too rude. A few seconds later he felt a hand on his shoulder, indicating that Jongwoon now stood behind him.

“Why are you acting like this?” The hand on his shoulder used force to turn him around and Kyuhyun could now see straight into Jongwoon’s eyes. There was nothing but confusion and hurt inside of them.

“Acting like what?” Kyuhyun tried to turn around again, but Jongwoon’s hand held him firmly in place.

“You know what I’m talking about,” Jongwoon hissed back to Kyuhyun.

“Please don’t make a scene in front of my work,” Kyuhyun solemnly said, freeing himself from Jongwoon’s grip and started to walk towards his house. Jongwoon followed him and didn’t speak for a while. He waited until they were far enough from Kyuhyun’s work to start discussing things over.

“Now answer me,” Jongwoon said, as they walked into a small, dark and silent alley. Kyuhyun turned around to face him.

“I really don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You do know what I’m talking about, you are avoiding me. Why?”

“I’m not av–“

“I’m not stupid, Kyuhyun,” Jongwoon snapped, interrupting Kyuhyun. This was actually quite hard for Kyuhyun. Pretending he is not acting weird, while he actually is. But it would be better if Kyuhyun acted cold towards Jongwoon right? So the latter could just hate Kyuhyun and be happy that he is gone? That was Kyuhyun’s master plan.

“You are hallucinating Kim Jongwoon, go home and get some sleep.”

Kyuhyun started walking towards his home again. He didn’t mean to hurt Jongwoon, but the latter could be so stubborn. Maybe using harsh words would deliver the message. Tears started to form in Kyuhyun’s eyes as he walked away. His mind said he was doing the right thing, but his heart said the complete opposite.

A few seconds later, once again, a hand grabbed Kyuhyun at his shoulder and used force to prevent him from walking away. Instinctively, Kyuhyun pushed the person away who touched him. Jongwoon fell with his back against the wall and a scream of pain echoed through the whole alley.

“O my–... Are you okay? I didn’t meant to do–... I’m so sorry!” Kyuhyun rushed towards Jongwoon, who was now sitting on the ground, heavily breathing, his eyes clenched together and tears running down his face. Kyuhyun kneeled next to him. “Where does it hurt?”

“B–back,” Jongwoon answered, still groaning because of the pain.

“Sit forward,” Kyuhyun said, and Jongwoon did what he was asked to do. Kyuhyun lifted up the back of Jongwoon’s shirt, but he instantly dropped it again, as he saw something he had never seen before. “It doesn’t look good...” He choked out.

To Kyuhyun’s surprise, Jongwoon started to laugh through the tears and the groans of pain. Kyuhyun noticed Jongwoon tried to stand up, so he lent him a helping hand. Jongwoon walked away as soon as he stood up, holding Kyuhyun’s hand and dragging him with him. They ended up in the park. At the same bench where they had sat during their first ‘date’. Jongwoon still had a painful face, but he had stopped groaning on their walk towards the park. His breathing also slowly turned back to normal.

Kyuhyun still felt kind of scared. What he had seen on Jongwoon’s back really didn’t look healthy. And Kyuhyun could only figure it was because of his push. He must have injured Jongwoon really badly.

“Shouldn’t we call the hospital?” Kyuhyun already searched for his phone while asking this, but Jongwoon just laughed again and answered with a simple “No.”

“But it really looks bad. There is this lump on your back, and it’s surrounded by this really unhealthy red color. You must have fallen really awkwardly.”

“Kyuhyun-ah, don’t worry. That’s how it was before I fell.”

“W... What?”

“You really don’t know much about my disease do you?” Jongwoon smiled at Kyuhyun’s confused face, as it looked rather adorable. But that face soon turned into a mad one.

“I would have known more if you would have let me talk about it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You want us to be together, but I’m not allowed to ask you anything about your health. So no, I do not know much about your disease, and it is killing me inside,” Kyuhyun looked away from Jongwoon, he just couldn’t look at the other right now. All kinds of feelings went through him. Love, sadness, insecurity, fear, anger.. Kyuhyun was afraid he might either punch Jongwoon in the face, hug him to death, or kiss him like he never kissed him before. His feelings couldn’t be trusted at this moment.

“I never forbid you to talk about it... I just didn’t want it to be the subject of every conversation we have.”

Jongwoon placed his hand on Kyuhyun’s shoulder, leaned to him and back/side-hugged him softly. “Is that why you are avoiding me?”

“Maybe.”

Kyuhyun still wasn’t convinced.

“So, you are not mad at me for getting sick because of the chemo?” As Jongwoon’s voice trembled a little, Kyuhyun turned his gaze back at him. Jongwoon’s eyes were watery,  but no tears were falling. As soon as Kyuhyun saw this, he hugged the other back.

“Of course not... I just figured you would be better off without me since I will probably ask about your disease a lot. I want to know how you are doing, I want to be able to support you in everything.”

“You can ask me anything, always.”

“Then please tell me about your back...” Jongwoon stood up as Kyuhyun said this. ”Where are you going?”

“Let’s go home Kyuhyun, it’s getting cold. I will explain everything to you there, I have to show you something anyway...” Kyuhyun followed Jongwoon as he walked towards their homes.

  
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They went straight to Jongwoon’s and Hyukjae’s house. As the lights were on inside Kyuhyun’s house, and Hyukjae wasn’t at his own home, both Jongwoon and Kyuhyun could guess that Hyukjae was with Donghae. Jongwoon showed Kyuhyun the way to his bedroom and told Kyuhyun to wait for him inside the room. He ran to Kyuhyun’s house to inform Hyukjae that he was home again. Apparently Hyukjae had called Jongwoon on his cell phone 8 times (unsuccessfully) and sent 10 text messages about how worried he was.

As Jongwoon left, Kyuhyun entered his bedroom. It was exactly like Kyuhyun had expected it to be. Also an oasis of peace, just like the rest of the house. Though, the accent in the bedroom was the color red. Kyuhyun remembered that that was Jongwoon’s favorite color.

In the corner of the room, there was a huge makeup closet, or however you can call it. It contained a huge mirror, and inside the drawers were a lot of skin-colored make-up things, and quite some jewelry. Even though Kyuhyun felt slightly guilty for going through Jongwoon’s stuff, it was the latter’s own fault. Leaving a curious boy inside your bedroom? That was just asking for trouble.

Leaving the makeup corner for what it is, Kyuhyun continued his inspection. There were many pictures on the walls, of all kinds of people. Kyuhyun only recognized a few. A picture of Hyukjae, and some of the people he had met at the hospital who visited Jongwoon when he was sick. But there were still many pictures unidentified by Kyuhyun. He stopped staring at the pictures, as it turned out to be useless to stare at unknown people, and continued his inspection once again.

He walked towards the clothing closet and opened it. It was bulging of clothes. Kyuhyun never saw this many clothes at one place before. Not even in clothing shops. Or in girls closets. But it was a really pretty looking collection. All kinds of colors. Green, yellow, orange, pink, black, white, blue and an overload of red.

Jongwoon’s bed was nicely made as well. He sure was someone neat. Everything inside the room was organized. Suddenly Kyuhyun’s eyes fell on a door, which wasn’t the door Kyuhyun had come through when he walked in. Curiosity once again took over Kyuhyun’s mind and he opened the door. What he found inside shocked and confused him.

“I didn’t think you would go through all my stuff.”

Kyuhyun turned around and saw Jongwoon standing in the doorway. His facial expression only showed amusement, but Kyuhyun still was afraid he would be mad.

“I’m sorry...” Jongwoon only smiled at Kyuhyun’s apology. “What are these?” Kyuhyun pointed at the items stalled in front of him, and Jongwoon’s gaze suddenly went to the ground.

“This is what I wanted to show you.”

Jongwoon’s hand went up to his own head, as he grabbed his hair. Kyuhyun’s mouth fell open as soon as Jongwoon lifted his own hair up. He... He had no hair. “I lost my hair due to the chemo... and these...” Jongwoon pointed at the items Kyuhyun had stared at not too long ago, “...are wigs.”

Kyuhyun once again looked at the items. It were mannequin heads, with hair on it. Actually, Kyuhyun thought Jongwoon wanted to be a hairdresser or something as soon as he saw these things. But now it all made sense. 1 of the 6 wigs Kyuhyun had seen before. On Jongwoon’s head. Kyuhyun started to get dizzy because of all the information and Jongwoon noticed this. He guided Kyuhyun to his own bed and sat down on it with him, adjusting the wig he was wearing before, back on his head.

“I- I’m sorry, I d-didn’t know,” Kyuhyun stuttered, suddenly feeling guilty for not noticing this before. Other than that, Kyuhyun complimented the person, who had made these wigs, inside his head. They looked really realistic. As Kyuhyun was still processing that Jongwoon had lost his hair due to the chemo (He could tell Jongwoon was sad about it. And Kyuhyun could understand. He would feel horrible if he lost his hair. His precious hair), Jongwoon suddenly turned his back to Kyuhyun and took off his shirt. Kyuhyun’s eyes instantly went to Jongwoon’s lower back, as no person would be able to avoid looking at the huge red unhealthy looking part.

Jongwoon didn’t say anything as Kyuhyun slowly started to touch the red part. The lump in the middle of it was about 2 cm in width. It felt hard. And warm. The red part was basically burning, and the lump itself felt like it was a piece of bone.

“It has been there for a long time already. I never thought it would be something bad, so I never went to the doctor with it. Even though it always did hurt pretty bad,” Jongwoon explained, as Kyuhyun was still looking obsessively at the lump. “One day I woke up, and suddenly I was unable to move. I couldn’t do anything. Hyukjae, as well as his parents, already left home, so I was screaming but no one came to help me. The stupid thing was, my phone was lying next to me, but because I couldn’t move at all, I couldn’t grab it,” Jongwoon sighed for a moment, and turned around to face Kyuhyun, who stopped touching the lump on his back. Kyuhyun looked at Jongwoon with a go-on look and Jongwoon smiled for a little before continuing his story.

“I laid on my bed like that for 7 hours. Then Hyukjae came home. He called the doctor for me, who came as soon as he could. He turned me around, looked at my back for just a second and instantly sent me to the hospital. After one week of testing, I got diagnosed with bone-cancer. It was already advanced far. It's not operative. So instead I get chemotherapy and radiation therapy. They aren’t sure on how to treat this, so I get really heavy doses of both. The redness you saw earlier, is because of the radiation therapy I received yesterday.”

Kyuhyun could only blink to the person sitting across him. Even though Jongwoon told him everything really lightly, it must have been very hard back then, and probably still is.

“So... are the treatments working?” Kyuhyun asked, hopeful. He couldn’t help but wonder, though he was afraid of what the answer might be.

“I don’t know yet. They will check on me in 4 months. After my 10th chemo session.”

Kyuhyun nodded. Suddenly he grabbed Jongwoon and hugged the latter until he was unable to breath. Kyuhyun kept mumbling his sorry for behaving so weirdly the last week. That he did not mean a thing of it, that he really loved Jongwoon, and that he will support him from now on no matter what. No more fights ever again. Jongwoon returned the hug. Tearing up slightly, as he had tried to be strong the whole time. Though he did not let Kyuhyun notice this. Jongwoon always wanted to look strong in front of other people. Though deep inside, he was scared all the time.

When they heard the front door opening and Hyukjae screaming that he was home, Kyuhyun stood up.

“I should go home.”

Jongwoon’s facial expression instantly turned to sad, and Kyuhyun couldn’t walk away like that, so he sat down again.

“Please sleep here tonight,” Jongwoon said, softly, as he looked at Kyuhyun with puppy eyes. Kyuhyun sighed, how could he say no to this? As Kyuhyun really felt like kissing the person across him, who was looking stunning with his puppy eyes, he moved his head closer to Jongwoon. Just 2 seconds after that, the bedroom’s door got slammed open and Hyukjae and Donghae stared at the 2 people inside the room. What they saw probably looked really weird. Jongwoon was sitting there without a shirt, Kyuhyun was sitting really close to him, and their faces were just inches away from each other.

“GO AWAY!” Jongwoon shouted, as soon as he saw Hyukjae staring at them. Hyukjae laughed, looked at Donghae with his they-are-doing-fine face, and closed the door as soon as he could. “Just wait until tomorrow Lee Hyukjae!” They both heard Jongwoon’s threat and laughed. They really were doing fine.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of the more difficult to write chapters. The story Jongwoon tells to Kyuhyun about how he had found out about having cancer is exactly how my friend told it to us. He too woke up, being unable to move, and was diagnosed just a while later. Lives change just like that.


End file.
